Classic looking ahead

WoW Classic Cataclysm Classic Discussion
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Since nobody can respond here because its a CC thread link is provided here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/classic-looking-to-the-future/1340707

Bornakk had posed an interesting question
“If Wrath is a bit of a stopping point for you, what would make you most interested in playing WoW Classic in the future? (Seasons, Fresh Start experiences, or anything that appeals to you)”

And to be frank this is my opinion classic is currently where Old School Runescape was when it first launched when it hit the initial stagnation point. It wasnt until forms of new content were brought into the game that allowed it to start thriving, classic is treading into that direction.

People really for the most part have been there, done that with Wrath for a lot of people especially raiders its a nice nostalgia trip but thats it as once the Lich king is defeated many of us will call it quits and probably for good.

The game (Blizzard, and the community) need to ultimately decide what is it they want classic to be, as pursuing cataclysm is fine but the old world revamp wasnt enjoyable, the cut content, dragon soul, LFR the list goes on. And eventually classic just becomes retail.

What I personally would like to see is a revisit to the cut content, find ways to utilize it, or make it work, or even outright come up with new content that doesnt overall impact the scope of retail. The possibilities are endless. And who knows by doing something new in classic it may indirectly cause retail players to say hey, this is kinda neat too can we get something like this?

Curious to see what everyone elses take is for a post wrath classic. I also am not a fan of seasonals, and fresh starts arent exactly that warm of an idea either.

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I think a community poll would be ideal but at the same time probably won’t fit with the player base in wow. We’ve seen numerous times in the past that players here especially the forum goers are largely skeptical and do not believe any statistics Blizzard presents them.

So essentially the first poll would go out and the new thing added and half the people will be thankful and the other half will constantly spam the forum about how its unwanted, blizz lied to them, and that they should get the thing that lost instead. Anyone who is happy with the winning change will be labeled as shills and trolls and the cycle will go on and on.

What I would really like to see from Classic after WoTLK is new servers with modified rulesets and maybe more current QoL changes brought in. I really would enjoy playing through the later expansions with WotLK class design as well.

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Classic Era Phase 7: The Timbermaw Hold

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Classic MoP hands down

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  1. If Wrath is a bit of a stopping point for you, what would make you most interested in playing WoW Classic in the future? (Seasons, Fresh Start experiences, or anything that appeals to you)

I would really enjoy a version of Classic where every January, new servers are released for Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, and Wrath Classic, and they take the seasonal approach.

I played Season of Mastery on the Jom Gabbar server and encountered some wonderful folks whom I raided with. However, the content release felt off and it seemed to just hit a lull at points. Even leveling felt a bit slow with the 50% increase.

I think seasons accomplishes the fresh start experience as well.

Anything that appeals to me? I’d like for the Classic team to move forward with Classic+. I know there are many people who do not like the current iteration of World of Warcraft, however, it appears the developers are trying to bring back a sense of gameplay that was lost over the years.

I’d like Classic+ to be a playground for the Classic team. Instead of just maintaining an already written story, why not allow them a few chapters of their own? Maybe a new raid?

If Classic+ were the route taken, I’d also love for them to update the game a bit. The current Classic models, especially the gnomes, don’t look as good as the updated models. I’d love for the inclusion of the HD models.

  1. Does the possibility of continuing on to Cataclysm sound exciting to you? If so, are there still changes you’d like to see? If not, are there certain changes that would get you excited?

No. The reason the possibility of continuing onto Cataclysm doesn’t appeal to me is because of the old world revamp and how it was forced onto players. There were many quests removed from the old world, specially class quests. The worst victims are Benediction and Rhok’delar.

I completed the Benediction quest line on my priest during Season of Mastery. It was a lovely quest chain and it felt awesome doing it. Its a shame that the quest chain and Benediction staff were lost forever on current WoW.

What I would love to see in Cataclysm and would get me to play is the technology that allows players to phase a zone. In current WoW, I can visit various Bronze Dragonflight NPCs who allow me to change a zone back to how it was in a previous state. If Blizzard could add that tech to Cataclysm Classic, where you played Cataclysm, but still had the option to phase your character to pre-cataclysm Azeorth, I’d love that.

However, if that’s not the case, I don’t feel I’d continue onto Cata classic and hope to stay around in WotLK.

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The next expansion should be via poll.

Either MoP or Legion would win - too close to call

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Let’s just go straight into Shadowlands classic.

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After reading the CC post, I don’t share the sentiment. It was mostly a melancholy nostalgia trip with a list of things OP didn’t like about Cata. The final paragraph offered some discussion heavily flavored with denial. Classic Cata is inevitable. People wanted to stay in vanilla when Classic TBC was announced. So they made vanilla era servers and we saw how they turned out. People don’t want to sit on the same content indefinitely. We’ll lose some players going to Cata like we did going to TBC but likewise players will progress.

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When was the last time Blizzard actually gave us data, rather than going “trust us guys, we totally did the thing with the data we totally have” without it being followed up by “wow we had no idea how many were against the thing.”

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I have so much to say on this topic I’m not sure where to begin.

New expansion after WoTLK:

I’d LOVE to see blizzard create a brand new expansion after WoTLK done in the classic art & game style such as what has been done in Old School Runescape. That being said, I know that the classic team just isn’t large enough to handle such an undertaking. Maybe one day this will be a possibility, but until then I can only dream.

Wrath +:

Onto the more realistic scenarios, I’d prefer to see additional content added to wrath. New raids, zones, etc. If a new expansion in the classic style isn’t a possibility, this is a next best thing.

Classic +:

If we’re going to start over again, heavy changes to classic vanilla must be made (like SoM, but much more significant). Class balancing, QoL changes that aren’t detrimental to the game such as warlocks being able to summon inside of instances. Things along that line to give vanilla breath of fresh air. I’d also strongly suggest new vanilla content to go along with the ride.

Continue on to cataclysm:

Assuming all three of the above are out of the picture, I really do not want to progress into Cataclysm. The reasons why have been stated all over the place, but to most the classic gamestyle & gameplay ends with WoTLK. I will play it because cata is still better then retail, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up quitting half way into it, just as I did back in original cata. I would much rather just continue on WoTLK ERA servers, or simply start the trio of expansions over again. I know progressing to cata is the most likely of scenarios, but gosh darn do I feel like it’s a complete waste of the developers time and effort. It’s just not a very good expansion, and there’s just not any realistic way to make it good without such massive overhauls it might as well be a brand new expansion.

For reference, I have played and raided consistently every week since day 1 of classic. I love the classic gameplay and class design. It’s something truly special. I quit in WoD to play Nostarlius. I quit in Legion to play Nostalrius 2.0 after its relaunch. I waited on the edge of my seat to play Classic back in summer of 2019. I’ve got nearly ~250 days /played across all my classic characters. The game has been out three years, and I’ve spent nearly one of them logged in and playing. I will certainly play Dragonlands, but I promise I will never stop playing classic during this time and will most likely stop playing Retail after a month, as I’ve done for the last three expansions. Retail just isn’t that good.

I wish you developers had the support you needed to truly make the future of Classic an unforgettable experience.

Anyway, I love this game. I will continue to play classic so long as it exists, no matter the form it takes. I just hope we don’t go to cataclysm.

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This is what is most likely to happen

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I’m not sure how they’d do it without making the original content worthless via powercreep.

Maybe do an ilvl squish with ToC/ICC AFTER their phases have run their course to make a new raid teir? The squish should come sooner imho, if that is their plan. Just making gear go up to ilvl 300 would be bonkers. You’d be approaching scaling so high that some classes are just straight up crit/haste capped unbuffed.

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I would like to see new content being added to wotlk. Cata is where the game starts going downhill for me and did not enjoy it overall. The changing of the talents from wrath was a huge misstep in my opinion. I also did not like the changes that were made to healers. I could go on and on but i’ll just leave it at that.

For me wotlk was the pinnacle of wow, and I loved the fact that pretty much every class could perform well. The raids were fun and I liked doing wintergrasp. If new content could be added to wrath after ICC and ruby sanctum I think that would be neat, and it would keep me engaged. If that’s not a possibility then classic wrath is just fine for me. After wrath however the game loses it’s classic feel for me. I also would not mind some of the new classes being added to wrath if they added tier sets for them, and classic feeling talents.

Anyways that’s just my take on the whole classic. Hope you all have a great day!

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I don’t think that would work in WoW the same way it works in OSRS. I think the WoW community is way less unified on the direction the game should go. Hardly anything would get 75% approval.

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Seasonal approach with 80-100 hours played to reach max level is doomed to fail. SOM might,and I say might, be feasible if you could make max level characters out of the gate, but even then I think it would be too niche a product to be successful.

Most people don’t want to spend a ton of time improving and gearing a character only for it to dead-end and disappear at the end of the season with all it’s gear and items.

It was a good run, but I think we are approaching the end of the line for Classic.

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I would play cata if offered. I’d probably play rebooted vanilla if they offered it too. I’d only pick one though.

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Yeah It wouldn’t work out with how tribalistic the wow player base is, and like I said you would have the people that just can’t accept the numbers in a poll being true.

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As nice as one would be its not realistic. Theres almost no chance anything gets a 75% approval, nevermind how as you stated skeptical a lot of the player base is of Blizzard.

Id personally like to see something like a poll or a more open ended discussion started by a blue but that also most likely wont happen.

A WOTLK + would be really nice to see more so than classic, something that lets them experiment with new ideas, use old content that was cut and try to make work, and ultimately I do wish they werent afraid to take the plunge into something like this as thats what it feels like. And doing cata but appeasing people with changes isnt an ideal route by any means.

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Cata Classic with modest changes and WotLK Era servers would be my preference.

I already have clones for Classic Era. I don’t think I would ever do a reboot or SoM.

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I know a lot of us have different opinions on what they’d like to see for Classic+. Personally, my dream version of classic+ would have a high res version of Azeroth, I want to see Tanaris desert redone in todays graphics, I’d loveeee to adventure through Feralas in updated textures/models.

As far as gameplay for Classic+ I would like to see classes balanced to be more in line with Wotlk gameplay. I’d love arena to be added, and maybe a few of the QoL changes wotlk brought. (no heirlooms though)

I don’t think this will ever happen, but I would love to see cut content added to classic. The aszhara BG would be a welcome addition to Classic+, or the Kara crypt raid. How about an emerald dream themed dungeon, or a gates of Uldum dungeon?

I guess I’m ready for a WoW 2, these changes would require a bigger dedicated team. My visions for classic+ are unrealistic I suppose.

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